A Dark, Violent and delightful surprise, with a kickin’ score!

I hadn’t been in Los Angeles all that long, really. Wasn’t acclimated to the temperature, and still thought sixty degrees was “warm.” In-n-Out was a novelty for me, and so were all the movie theater options available (you mean I can go to the theater Tarantino owns whenever I want??).

Joe Wright as a director was on my radar, but I had only seen his Pride and Prejudice, which I thought “was fine.” Both Atonement and The Soloist were a skip for me based on the marketing, which made the trailer for Hanna a bit of a surprise when I saw it.

It was a gory, three-course meal with complicated start and a ravishing finish.

My favorite television show of all time is Hannibal, the surprising NBC adaptation of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon. The show focused on FBI Special Investigator Will Graham and his relationship to Psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a relationship that the internet would lovingly dub “murder husbands.”

SEE??! MURDER HUSBANDS ARE REAL AND IMPORTANT!

As someone who enjoyed Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, found an amusing appreciation for Ridley Scott’s Hannibal, and found himself bored by Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon, I was interested to see how NBC (of all channels) was going to take a stab at the polite cannibal.

Batman Returns turns 25 this week, and to celebrate we’re looking back at the hype for the movie!

My introduction to Batman Returns wasn’t typical in that I came to it much later and played the video game first. As a young kid my Batman was the Adam West Batman, so this darker take from Tim Burton never really connected. It certainly looked cool, and piqued my interest thanks to its edgier tone, but it felt “other” to the goofier Gotham I was used to.

I decided to take a look back at the hype surrounding this movie, especially since I don’t remember much of the marketing for it compared to the ’89 Batman film.

For some this was probably “their” movie Batman, and the trailer definitely brought the hype for that. For me, I had much of the same reaction I had for the first movie: “It’s fine.” What I didn’t expect was that in the marketing for this movie (and for the movies themselves) Gotham would feel like a tangible location and not some dressed up “insert-city-here.” That’s unique, and in my opinion one of the legacies of the Burton era of Batman.

Do you remember the marketing for Batman Returns? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below!

Nostalgia is a big part of our current pop culture landscape, but maybe it’s keeping us from getting the next Star Wars, or TMNT, or Doctor Who.

I think it was either Universal Studios’ announcement of their DARK UNIVERSE franchise or the latest round of “Cowboy Bebop is REALLY getting a live-action series” news that I came to the realization that we’ve given the next generation a bit of a raw deal when it comes to entertainment. Much of the movies, television shows, comic books, and pop culture that have defined our childhood have undergone a revival to aggressively cash in on our nostalgia.

In some cases I’ve been very receptive to this; see 2012’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which struck a balance between reminding me what I loved about the 80s/90s cartoon, and making something new out of it for a younger generation of turtle fans. Still, it wasn’t new, and I’d be willing to guess that it won’t have the same impact on the new generation of fans that it had on me and my generation. They inherited the heroes in a half shell from us olds, but we saw its origin.

Cars 3 comes out this weekend and it’s only fitting we talk about the surprising first movie. Ka-chow.

Sandwiched between The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Cars at first blush feels like a bit of a misstep. It’s a movie where vehicles are the only lifeforms and…well…that’s where the marketing pretty much lost me. Lots of racing stuff that I don’t care about? Check. A sidekick voiced by one of the “kings” of blue collar comedy? Check MATER.

I mean, look at this trailer…

The movie turned out to be way better than I thought it would be, walking a fine tightrope between its themes and the ridiculousness of the premise. After I saw the movie, I couldn’t help but think the trailers, marketing, and toys didn’t do the movie justice. The themes of “respecting your elders” being a “good winner,” honor, and appreciating history are very compelling, complex, and not something you would expect based on the marketing. I absolutely loved the moment where Lightning McQueen gives up the Piston Cup to help The King finish his last race.

Cars may not be as good as some of the other films in Pixar’s filmography, but man is it worth a watch. And with the “final chapter” coming out this week, I find myself hyped to see what Lightning McQueen faces next.

Do spoilers matter in our movie marketing? Jonathan doesn’t seem to think so, and can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Hey Internet people! I’ve got a problem that I’ve been mulling over for quite some time. Do spoilers in trailers matter? Does a trailer revealing a particular plot point or showing the last moment from the last scene “ruin the experience” for you? For me, the short answer is no. The longer answer? I don’t know. My arc as a moviegoer has gone from trying to avoid anything about a movie until I see it in theaters to being completely ambivalent. I have to be careful around my more spoiler-cautious pals these days because I forget that they might want to go into a movie completely fresh.

So, what changed? When did it change? Could this trailer for ATOMIC BLONDE (which I love) be the culprit?

Our music tastes here at After The Hype are a bit random, so we decided to share our weird and wild sounds with you!

We’ve got quite the odd musical treat for you to listen to either at work, or on your commute TO work. Some movie soundtracks to fit our theme this week as well as stuff from Gorillaz, Kendrick Lamar, Justice, MC Lars, and The Beetles. Bet you can’t guess our theme this week! Just click on any one of these songs and your Spotify app will open right up to play the tracks, and you can continue reading all our wonderful articles.

All of us here at After The Hype love Star Wars, because… well… it’s STAR WARS!

In honor of Star Wars Day (May 4th) we will be releasing one “Hype to Remember” a day to cover all 8 of the released Star Wars films! I’m back to talk about the dark chapter of the prequel trilogy, the one we all knew was coming. It’s…interesting.

I’ll admit, episodes one and two were huge bummers for me. Something was missing from both of them and at the time I couldn’t really articulate what that “thing” was. To confuse things even more, there were things I really liked in these films. It was (and to some extent still is) hard to reconcile the little bit of good that I latched onto versus the myriad of bad. This trailer kind of touches on that.

Watching this thing now, I’m fascinated by the speed at which everything unravels for the Republic and goes to complete shit. In that regard, the film makes good on the promise in the trailer. You can also see where Lucas is trying to weave the prequels to the original trilogy, and even in the advertisements it feels messy. Still, within the mess I can see the really good version of this. I can see what Lucas was trying to do and I actually kind of dig it.

I just wish more of these story beats had been earned. Anyway, this is an interesting mess of a trailer and I’d like to share that mess with you all today!

All of us here at After The Hype love Star Wars, because… well… it’s STAR WARS!

In honor of Star Wars Day (May 4th) we will be releasing one “Hype to Remember” a day to cover all 8 of the released Star Wars films! I get the honor of talking about the BEST film in the series thus far – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!

I jumped on board the Star Wars train roughly around ’97 when they re-released the original trilogy back in theaters, so I had the benefit of knowing that this was part of a larger saga that would (hopefully) be ongoing. It’s weird to go back and watch the original marketing materials for these movies, especially after living through the updates, re-releases, and the marketing for the new movies still to come.

This trailer feels very much like a sales pitch, stating matter-of-fact what we’re getting in the movie, which is more of what made the first one so great, plus this new guy LANDO CALRISSIAN. It also spoils a lot of the movie (minus the big reveal), which I wasn’t really expecting.

And yet I don’t really mind all that much. There’s a rough-around-the-edges charm here that the franchise has lacked for a long-ass time, and I hope we can get back to that somehow.